Windows 7 adoption set to grow through 2010

The sales figures since the October launch have already placed Windows 7 ahead of its predecessor Vista but the market for the OS looks set to expand further this year.

According to research carried out by migration specialist KACE, 87% of those IT professionals it quizzed have plans to deploy Windows 7 compared to just 47% who had ambitions at this stage after the release with Vista.

The sales figures even pre-release for Windows 7 banished the experiences most in the channel had gone through with Vista which struggled to take-off with most users opting to stick with XP.

But the successful launch of Microsoft's latest OS has been credited with helping the hardware market as well as impacting on other areas
including the security sector.

Although significant numbers of users plan to migrate to the OS this year there are still some concerns holding them back with migration causing compatibility problems worrying 86% of respondents and 25% not convinced about performance issues.

But overall the positive impact of the Microsoft software looks set to continue to filter through the channel and customers over the course of 2010.

"Windows 7 is looking like it will be the biggest inflection point in Windows OS adoption since XP," said Rob Meinhardt, president of Dell KACE (
pictured).

"But because there isn't a direct upgrade path from XP, migrating to Windows 7 could be challenging and costly for most organisations," he added, saying that was where the channel opportunity was at its most prominent.

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